Multan مُلتان | |
|---|---|
 Clockwise from top: Shrine of Bahauddin Zakariya, Shahi Eid Gah Mosque, Ghanta Ghar, Tomb of Shah Rukn-e-Alam, Shrine of Shamsuddin Sabzwari, Blue-tiled tomb of Shah Gardez | |
| Nickname(s): The City of Saints | |
  Multan Location in Pakistan | |
| Coordinates: 30°11′52″N 71°28′11″ECoordinates: 30°11′52″N 71°28′11″E | |
| Country |  Pakistan |
| Province |  Punjab |
| Division | Multan |
| Autonomous towns | 6 |
| Union council | 4 |
| Government | |
| • Type | Metropolitan Corporation[1] |
| • Mayor | Chaudhry Naveed Arain |
| Area | |
| • City | 286 km2 (110 sq mi) |
| • Metro | 3,721 km2 (1,437 sq mi) |
| Highest elevation | 129 m (423 ft) |
| Population | |
| • City | 1,871,843 |
| • Rank | 7th, Pakistan |
| • Density | 6,500/km2 (17,000/sq mi) |
| • Demonym | Multani |
| Time zone | UTC+05:00 (PST) |
| Area code(s) | 061 |
| Website | www |
Multan (Urdu: مُلتان ; [mʊltaːn] (
listen)) is a city and capital of Multan Division located in Punjab, Pakistan. Situated on the bank of the Chenab River, Multan is Pakistan's 7th largest city and is the major cultural and economic centre of Southern Punjab.[6][7]
Multan's history stretches deep into antiquity. The ancient city was site of the renowned Hindu Multan Sun Temple, and was besieged by Alexander the Great during the Mallian Campaign.[8] Multan was one of the most important trading centres of medieval Islamic India,[9] and attracted a multitude of Sufi mystics in the 11th and 12th centuries, earning the city the sobriquet "City of Saints". The city, along with the nearby city of Uch, is renowned for its large number of Sufi shrines dating from that era.[10]
Etymology[edit]
The origin of Multan's name is unclear. Multan may derive its name from the Old Persian word mulastāna, meaning “frontier land,”[11] or possibly from the Sanskrit word mūlasthāna (the root place),[12] which itself may be derived from the Hindu deity worshipped at the Multan Sun Temple.[13][14] Hukm Chand in the 19th century suggested that the city was named after an ancient Hindu tribe that was named Mulu.[15]
History[edit]
Ancient[edit]
The Multan region has been continuously inhabited for at least 2,000 years. The region is home to numerous archaeological sites dating to the era of the Early Harappan period of the Indus Valley Civilisation,[16] dating from 3000 BCE until 2800 BCE.
According to the Persian historian Firishta, the city was founded by a great grandson of Noah.[15] According to Hindu religious texts, Multan was founded by the Hindu sage Kashyapa[17] and also asserts Multan as the capital of the Trigarta Kingdom ruled by the Katoch dynasty at the time of the Kurukshetra War that is central the Hindu epic poem, the Mahabharata.[18][19][20]
Ancient Multan was the center of a solar-worshiping tradition that was based at the ancient Multan Sun Temple.[21] While the tradition was dedicated to the Hindu Sun God Surya, the cult was influenced by Persian Zoroastrianism.[21] The Sun Temple was mentioned by Greek Admiral Skylax, who passed through the area in 515 BCE. The temple is also mentioned in the 400s BCE by the Greek historian, Herodotus.[22]
Greek invasion[edit]
Multan is believed to have been the Malli capital that was conquered by Alexander the Great in 326 BCE as part of the Mallian Campaign. During the siege of the city's citadel, the Alexander leaped into the inner area of the citadel,[citation needed] where he killed the Mallians' leader.[23] Alexander was wounded by an arrow that had penetrated his lung, leaving him severely injured.[24] During Alexander's era, Multan was located on an island in the Ravi river, which has since shifted course numerous times throughout the centuries.[17]
In the mid-5th century CE, the city was attacked by a group of Hephthalite nomads led by Toramana. By the mid 600s CE, Multan had been conquered by the Chach of Alor,[25] of the Hindu Rai dynasty.
Early Islamic[edit]
After his conquest of Sindh, Muhammad bin Qasim in 712 CE captured Multan from the local ruler Chach of Alor following a two-month siege.[26] Muhammad bin Qasim's army was running out of supplies, but Multan's defenses were still holding strong. His army was considering a retreat when an unnamed Multani came to him and told him about and underground canal from which they derived their sustenance. He told them that if Muhammad's army were to block that canal, Multan would be under their control. Muhammad bin Qasim blocked the canal and soon took control of Multan. Following bin Qasim's conquest, the city's subjects remained mostly non-Muslim for the next few centuries.[27]
Abbassid Amirate[edit]
By the mid-800s, the Banu Munabbih (also known as the Banu Sama), who claimed descent from the Prophet Muhammad's Quraysh tribe came to rule Multan, and established the Amirate of Banu Munabbih, which ruled for the next century.[28]
During this era, the Multan Sun Temple was noted by the 10th century Arab geographer Al-Muqaddasi to have been located in a most populous part of the city.[21] The Hindu temple was noted to have accrued the Muslim rulers large tax revenues,[29][30] by some accounts up to 30% of the state's revenues.[27] During this time, the city's Arabic nickname was Faraj Bayt al-Dhahab, ("Frontier House of Gold"), reflecting the importance of the temple to the city's economy.[27]
The 10th century Arab historian Al-Masudi noted Multan as the city where Central Asian caravans from Islamic Khorasan would assemble.[31] The 10th century Persian geographer Estakhri noted that the city of Multan was approximately half the size of Sindh's Mansura, which along with Multan were the only two Arab principalities in South Asia. Arabic was spoken in both cities,[27] though the inhabitants of Multan were reported by Estakhri to also have been speakers of Persian,[31] reflecting the importance of trade with Khorasan. Polyglossia rendered Multani merchants culturally well-suited for trade with the Islamic world.[31] The 10th century Hudud al-'Alam notes that Multan's rulers were also in control of Lahore,[31] though that city was then lost to the Hindu Shahi Empire.[31] During the 10th century, Multan's rulers resided at a camp outside of the city named Jandrawār, and would enter Multan once a week on the back of an elephant for Friday prayers.[32]
Ismaili Amirate[edit]
By the mid 10th century, Multan had come under the influence of the Qarmatian Ismailis. The Qarmatians had been expelled from Egypt and Iraq following their defeat at the hands of the Abbasids there. Qarmatians zealots had famously sacked Mecca,[33] and outraged the Muslim world with their theft and ransom of the Kaaba's Black Stone, and desecration of the Zamzam Well with corpses during the Hajj season of 930 CE.[34] They wrested control of the city from the pro-Abbasid Amirate of Banu Munabbih,[35] and established the Amirate of Multan, while pledging allegiance to the Ismaili Fatimid Dynasty based in Cairo.[30][31]
The Qarmatian Ismailis opposed Hindu pilgrims worshipping the sun,[36] and destroyed the Sun Temple and smashed its revered Aditya idol in the late 10th century.[35] The Qarmatians built an Ismaili congregational mosque above the ruins to replace the city's Sunni congregational mosque that had been established by the city's early rulers.[27]
Medieval[edit]
[edit]
Mahmud of Ghazni in 1005 led an expedition against Multan's Qarmatian ruler Abdul Fateh Daud. The city was surrendered, and Fateh Daud was permitted to retain control over the city with the condition that he adhere to Sunnism.[37] In 1007, Mahmud led an expedition to Multan against his former minister and Hindu convert, Niwasa Khan, who had renounced Islam and attempted to establish control of the region in collusion with Abdul Fateh Daud of Multan.[37] In 1010, Mahmud led a punitive expedition against Daud to depose and imprison him,[21][37] and suppressed Ismailism in favour of the Sunni creed.[38] He destroyed the Ismaili congregational mosque that had been built above the ruins of the Multan Sun Temple, and restored the city's old Sunni congregational mosque.[27]
The 11th century scholar Abu Mansur al-Baghdadi reported that thousands of Ismailis were killed or mutilated during Mahmud's invasion, though the community was not extinguished.[21] Mahmud's rule over the region was noted by Al-Biruni to have ruined the region's former prosperity.[31] Following the Ghaznavid invasion of Multan, the local Ismaili community split, with one faction aligning themselves with the Druze religion,[21] which today survives in Lebanon, Syria, and the Golan Heights. Following Mahmud's death in 1030, Multan regained its independence from the Ghaznavid empire and came under the sway of Ismaili rule once again.[37] Shah Gardez, who came to Multan in 1088, is said to have contributed in the restoration of the city.
By the early 1100s, Multan was described by the Arab geographer Muhammad al-Idrisi as being a "large city" commanded by a citadel that was surrounded by a moat.[15] In the early 12th century, Multani poet Abdul Rahman penned the Sandesh Rasak,[27] the only known Muslim work in the medieval Apabhraṃśa language.[39]
Ghurid[edit]
In 1175, Muhammad Ghori conquered Ismaili-ruled Multan,[32][40] after having invaded the region via the Gomal Pass from Afghanistan into Punjab, and used the city as a springboard for his unsuccessful campaign into Gujarat in 1178.[37] Multan was then annexed to the Ghurid Sultanate, and became an administrative province of the Delhi's Mamluk Dynasty[28] — the first dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate. Multan's Ismaili community rose up in an unsuccessful rebellion against the Ghurids later in 1175.[21] According to Shah Gardez, the second invasion of Multan lead to the extinguishment of the remnants of Ismailism in the region.[21]
Mamluk era[edit]
Following the death of the first Mumluk Sultan, Qutb al-Din Aibak in 1210, Multan came under the rule of Nasiruddin Qabacha, who in 1222, successfully repulsed an attempted invasion by Sultan Jalal ad-Din Mingburnu of the Khwarazmian Empire,[28] whose origins were rooted in Konye-Urgench in modern-day Turkmenistan.[28] Qabacha also repulsed a 40-day siege imposed on the city by Mongol forces who attempted to conquer the city.[41] Following Qabacha's death that same year, the Turkic king Iltutmish, the third Sultan of the Mamluk dynasty, captured and then annexed Multan in an expedition.[28][37] The Punjabi poet Baba Farid was born in the village of Khatwal near Multan in the 1200s.[40]
Qarlughids attempted to invade Multan in 1236,[42] while the Mongols tried to capture the city in 1241 after capturing Lahore - though they were repulsed.[37] The Mongols under Sali Noyan then successfully held the city to ransom in 1245–6,[42] before being recaptured by Sultan Ghiyas ud din Balban, the ninth Mamluk Sultan. Multan then fell to the Qarlughids in 1249, but was captured by Sher Khan that same year.[42] Multan was then conquered by Izz al-Din Balban Kashlu Khan in 1254, before he rebelled against Sultan Ghiyas ud din Balban in 1257 and fled to Iraq where he joined Mongol forces and captured Multan again, and dismantled its city walls.[42] The Mongols again attempted an invasion in 1279, but were dealt a decisive defeat.[40] Alauddin Khalji of Delhi dispatched his brother Ulugh Khan in 1296 to conquer Multan in order to eliminate surviving family members of his predecessor.
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